<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>If My Heart Beats You Set the Tempo by zebraljb</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22375567">If My Heart Beats You Set the Tempo</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/zebraljb/pseuds/zebraljb'>zebraljb</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingsman (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Illnesses, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:21:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,383</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22375567</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/zebraljb/pseuds/zebraljb</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eggsy and Harry have done their time in Medical. They've never thought about what it might be like to sit worrying at their loved one's bedside...because why would Merlin ever be the one in the bed?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Hart | Galahad/Merlin/Gary "Eggsy" Unwin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>87</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>If My Heart Beats You Set the Tempo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I am having many feels today about hurt/comfort, illness fics, etc.  So you get this.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eggsy skids to a stop in front of the closed door, takes a deep breath, and runs a hand over his hair.  He tugs at his suit jacket and makes sure his tie is straight.  Not that he’ll know, but Eggsy will know.  He slowly opens the door and frowns as he sees the figure seated at the side of the bed.  “Oh. You’re here.”</p><p>“Of course I am.”  Harry doesn’t look up from the man on the bed, occasionally bringing the slender hand up to press a kiss to the knuckles.  “Like I’d be anywhere else.”</p><p>“Ya didn’t think that maybe I felt the same way?” Eggsy snaps.  He picks up the other chair and pulls as close as he can to the other side of the bed.  He picks up the left hand and carefully places his own kiss on the strong fingers, making sure to touch each knuckle.  He even kisses around the medical tape, where the IV is pushing healing fluids into Merlin’s body.</p><p>“You were on a mission…that came first.”</p><p>“Unlike you, Harry, I put my heart before my fucking job.”  Eggsy carefully places the hand back down on the bed and tugs at the covers, pulling them up over Merlin’s chest as best he can.</p><p>“Is that what you think? You think I put Kingsman…the name of Arthur…before my heart?” Harry hisses.  “Tell me, Galahad, what the FUCK could you have done? Do you have a medical degree? If I’d have pulled you from the field, would you have come up with a miraculous cure?  I doubt it.  If memory serves, you didn’t even FINISH school.”  Eggsy winces and actually pulls back a bit.  “You were doing more on your assignment than you could have done here. All you’d have accomplished here is getting in the way of the medical professionals trying to fix him.”</p><p>“Kinda like you probably did?” Eggsy snaps back.  “You didn’t even tell me, Harry.  You let me find out when I stepped off the jet.  Asked Uther where Merlin was, and he gave me this look full of fucking pity, and then he tells me exactly where I can find Merlin.  Fucking laid up in  Medical, unconscious.”</p><p>“You had a job to do. And more importantly…excuse me for trying to protect YOUR heart.  You act as if I don’t have one, but I certainly care about yours.  You were hundreds of miles away, unable to come back.  Why would I give you information that would certainly destroy you?  Not only would you be unable to focus on your mission, but you’d only sit and worry about Merlin…you’d feel frustrated and helpless.”  Harry kisses Merlin’s hand again.  “I know that feeling far too well.”</p><p>“Harry,” Eggsy says in a choked voice.  He slowly stands up as tears start to fall. “Why the fuck we arguing?”</p><p>“I don’t know, my boy.”  Harry stands as well, steadying himself just in time.  Eggsy darts around the bed and throws himself into Harry’s arms.  “I know…I know.”  Harry rubs a soothing hand up and down Eggsy’s back as his tears fall into Eggsy’s hair.  </p><p>“Sorry, Harry…shouldn’t have said that.  I’m just…I was…”</p><p>“I know, dearest.  I’m sorry as well. I never meant to keep things from you, but I thought it was for the best.  I know how it’s been for me…and to have you feel that way such a long distance from home…I didn’t want to put you through that.”</p><p>“Didn’t mean what I said about your heart, Harry. Know you love us…know how you feel about Merlin, about me. Know…know he’s your happy ever after.”  Eggsy turns to look at the motionless figure on the bed.  “Always has been.”</p><p>“And now you’re part of that happy ever after as well, darling.”  Harry uses his handkerchief to wipe at Eggsy’s face.</p><p>“Love you both so much…can’t imagine life without him in it, Harry,” Eggsy tucks his head into Harry’s chest, wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist. “Just got him…he just told me loved me, right before I left.  Gave me a kiss…fuck, Harry, never been kissed like that before, not even by you.”</p><p>“He could win awards in kissing,” Harry agrees.</p><p>“What happened, Harry?” Eggsy whispers. “They wouldn’t tell me nothing.  When I left he was fine, just had a bit of a cold.”</p><p>“I don’t know if you’ve heard about the strain of flu going around…it’s quite resistant to treatment.  His cold was actually that…the start of the flu.  It took him down rather quickly. One moment he was sitting in his chair and the next he had slumped onto his desk.  It was quite honestly the most frightened I have ever been.”</p><p>“Oh, poor Harry.”  Eggsy looks up at him sorrowfully.  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”</p><p>“You’re here now.”  Harry tightens his embrace.</p><p>“Always worried about me or you getting hurt, ending up in here while the other two had to sit and watch.”  Eggsy sniffles. “Never figured we’d be watching him.”</p><p>“He’s the best of all of us,” Harry says softly.  “Day in, day out, he sits in his tower and has to send his knights into war, never knowing who will make it back. He has to listen to us fight, listen to us fall…watch us die.  A lesser man would go insane.”</p><p>“He’s got a little bit of insanity to him,” Eggsy says with a small grin.  “The best kind.”</p><p>“That he does.” Harry’s entire body starts to tremble.  “I don’t know how to live my life without him, Eggsy. He’s been the focus of my world for decades.”</p><p>“Oh, Harry…let it out, babe.  Know you’ve been keeping it in, staying strong…let it go. I’m here,” Eggsy croons.</p><p>“Fuck, Hamish,” Harry quietly wails, and then he sobs, his long body starting to collapse in on itself.  Eggsy bears Harry’s weight as best he can, allowing the two of them to slowly fall to the ground.  </p><p>“Oh, my sweet Harry.”  Eggsy gently strokes the soft skin at the back of Harry’s neck.  “So strong and brave.”</p><p>Harry finally pulls away, blowing his nose and clearing his throat. “I do beg your pardon. That was quite ungentlemanly of me.”</p><p>“Harry,” Eggsy says reproachfully.  “You’ve done some quite ungentlemanly things to my arse on more than one occasion…think it’s okay for you to cry on my shoulder.”</p><p>“I fail to…see the reason for…such theatrics…” a voice rasps from the bed.</p><p>Their heads poke up as one.  “Merlin?”  Eggsy gasps, scrambling to his feet and helping Harry up as well.</p><p>“Aye, who else?”  Merlin coughs weakly, his hazel eyes dark against the pallor of his face.  “Aren’t ye supposed to be in Russia?”</p><p>“I…I came back.”  Eggsy takes one look at him and starts to cry.</p><p>“Am I…in a telly drama?” Merlin says in as stern of a tone as he can muster.</p><p>“You’ve been very ill, Hamish.” Harry pulls Eggsy in close.  “Forgive us for a bit of melodrama.”  Once Eggsy finally pulls away they return to their chairs, each taking one of Merlin’s hands.</p><p>“A bit of a cold…”</p><p>“A bit of a flu that fucking knocked you unconscious,” Eggsy interrupts.  </p><p>“It wasn’t looking very good for a few days,” Harry admits quietly.</p><p>“I see,” Merlin says simply.  “And that was enough to make the two of you cry like rom-com heroines?”</p><p>“No, you fucking bastard,” Eggsy growls. “It was enough to make us have to deal with the idea of life without you in it.  An idea which fucking sucks, in my opinion, so let’s try not to let it happen again, yeah?”</p><p>“The two of you would do well to also remember that,” Merlin says.  His eyes are soft as he looks from Eggsy to Harry. His thumbs rub over their fingers.  “I appreciate your concern.”</p><p>“Fuck concern,” Harry says bluntly.  “We love you and you know it.”  He leans forward and presses a kiss to Merlin’s dry lips.  “I couldn’t bear to live without you, Hamish.”</p><p>“I could be contagious,” Merlin protests.</p><p>Eggsy gently nudges Harry out of the way and goes in for his own kiss. “What’s a communicable disease between good friends?”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>